Friday, July 29, 2011

Homebrew Tasting: Traditional French Saison

I have decided to do all my tasting notes on the official BJCP Tasting Form/ Score Sheet. It is really helpful and I don't need to have a computer out or copy my notes into print. This is also nice because I can open a beer for a group of people and get their feedback and record this on the score sheet. Then the paper goes into my brewing binder so I can refer to it next year.

Overall this beer is right on the style guidelines, but didn't have that elevated punch. All the flavors were a bit weak. For next year's batch I will do a few things different:
- Blend the French Saison with a more flavor dominant yeast like the Dupont Strain
- Add light spices to elevate the flavor notes I want to focus on
- More wheat or other higher protein grain like spelt to improve mouthfeel and head retention.


I also have this 3rd party review from the San Diego County Fair Homebrew Contest. It is a huge (800+ entries) single day competition so the feedback is not very good. The upside is that you get 2 fair admissions for a $6 entry (this is now the only reason I enter).
NHC 2012 Results





2 comments:

  1. That's a good habit to get into... Have you been through the BJCP program or how are you coming up with your score?

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  2. No Official Training yet. My homebrew club QUAFF does offer monthly classes, but I have been a bit busy for those.

    I just read along with the style guidelines and give my best opinion on how close the beer came to meeting the style. The ratings for me are a bit arbitrary. I'm more concerned with how I'll improve the beer next time. And to pick out what I want to change it really helps to break down the beer into the categories on the BJCP Scoresheet.

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